Expression of cyclooxygenase-2 in kidney, bladder, prostate and testicular cancer

M Matsuyama MD PhD^a,d, R Yoshimura MD PhD^a, K Kuratsukuri MD PhD^a, Y Takemoto MD PhD^a, K Tsuchida MD PhD^a, Y Kawahito MD PhD^b, H Sano MD PhD^c, M Kawamura MD PhD^d, T Nakatani MD PhD^a

^aDepartment of Urology, Osaka City University Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka City, , ^bDepartment of Internal Medicine, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Medicine, , ^cDepartment of Internal Medicine, Hyogo College of Medicine, ^dDepartment of Urology; PL Hospital

Aim: Cyclooxygenase (COX) -2 is considered to play an important role in the development of metastasis in cancers due to its angiogenesis function. The expression of COX-2 was found to be up-regulated in human colorectal carcinoma and other cancers. In this study, we investigated the COX-1 and COX-2 expression in renal cell carcinoma (RCC), bladder cancer (BT), prostate cancer (PC), testicular cancer (TC) and normal tissues. Methods: 108 specimens were obtained from patients with RCC, 118 from patients with BT, 28 from PC, 72 from TC. Control specimens were obtained from 20 normal kidney (NK), 8 benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), 8 normal prostate (NP), , 10 chronic cystitis (CC), 8 normal bladder (NB), 20 normal testis (NT) tissues , Immunohistochemistry, using affinity purified antibodies against human COX-2, and RT-PCR to study the COX-2 mRNA expression were carried out. We also examined whether or not there was a significant difference in the expression of COX-2 among grades and stages in RCC, BT, PC tissues. Results: The extent and intensity of immunoreactive COX-2 polypeptides in RCC, BT, PC, TC cells was statistically much greater than those of cells from NK, CC, NB, BPH, NP, NT. No marked difference was seen among grades or between stages in RCC tissues. However, correlation between COX-2 expression and tissue type or progression of BT, PC was observed; COX-2 expression was higher in G3 than in G1 and was higher in advanced cancer than in early cancer. Conclusins: These results demonstrated that the generated COX-2 in human renal cell carcinoma, bladder cancer, prostatic cancer, testicular cancer cells might play an important role in the proliferation of malignant cells and the development of invasions.

Paper presented at the International Symposium on Predictive Oncology and Intervention Strategies; Nice, France; February 7 - 10, 2004; in poster session 797 (Manifestations of cancer).